So what exactly is up with Timothy Olyphant‘s sneaky character Kirsh in Alien: Earth? If you’ve been watching the FX show since the beginning, you might have been working under the assumption that Kirsh was a loyal synthetic servant to master Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin). After all, the Prodigy CEO trusts Kirsh with watching over his most prized possessions, be they cutting edge hybrids or stolen alien cargo.
**Spoilers for Alien: Earth Episode 6 “The Fly,” now streaming on Hulu**
However, at the end of Alien: Earth Episode 6 “The Fly,” Kirsch becomes aware of a critical situation that he intentionally hides from Boy Kavalier. This choice, coupled with a weird conversation earlier in the same episode, had us scratching our heads.
“You know, all I know is it feels like this is the same situation where we’ve all found ourselves in with AI,” Timothy Olyphant said, with a grin. “Whose side is it? And we’ll see.”
There’s good reason for Olyphant to be so coy about Kirsh’s intentions. At the end of this week’s episode of Alien: Earth, he watches in real time as one of the hybrids, Tootles, aka Isaac (Kit Young), meets his demise after two deadly aliens gang up on him. (The Eye Midge, in the body of a sheep, makes a premeditated move to trap Isaac in the Fly’s pen, seemingly aware that the Fly is the one alien who feasts on metal and not biological matter.) When Boy Kavalier asks Kirsh if anything is going on, Kirsh lies and says everything is okay.
Not only that, but Kirsh has been listening in on secret conversations that Weyland-Yutani lieutenant Morrow (Babou Ceesay) has been having with the hybrid Slightly (Adarsh Gourav). Rather than intercede, Kirsh has been sitting back, observing. All the while, Slightly is plotting to steal the aliens for Weyland-Yutani.
Kirsh’s loyalties to Prodigy are further questioned by a weird conversation he has this week with Morrow, wherein the adversaries almost feel like they could be allies. It’s a strange vibe that we asked Olyphant and Ceesay about.
“Did you kind of feel they could? Because I kind of felt they could there for a little bit,” Timothy Olyphant said, of the potential Kirsh/Morrow alliance teased. “Two working class guys, you know what I mean?”
“A bit of understanding,” Babou Ceesay said, nodding.
“Yeah, understanding the trade,” Olyphant said.
Ceesay smiled and kept nodding. “Yeah.”
“A lot of respect for one another,” Olyphant said.
“Indeed,” Ceesay said.
“Yeah, that scene in particular was one of my fave days on the set, working with this guy with that material. That was fun,” Olyphant said.
There are only two more episodes of Alien: Earth Season 1, meaning we could yet see more underhanded actions from Kirsh or discover that he’s been part of a larger plan concocted by Boy Kavalier. So what will it be? Is Kirsh loyal or a traitor?
As Olyphant himself teased, “…we’ll see.”